It was also the kind of day the Illinois Department of Transportation picked to make what looked like a non-emergency repair to an overhead sign where Interstate 39 flies over U.S. 20 near Rockford, requiring the crews to take part of the off-ramp and one lane at a time out of service. Yes, mid-morning on a getaway day. I'm sure somebody in the Department of Transportation had good reason to do so then, rather than, say, around sunset on Thursday, when the road is less taken.
The lineup of trucks waiting to clear the bottleneck was pretty impressive. Some days, the right lane of Interstate 39, and the free part of Interstate 90 north of the Cheddar Curtain, is a solid line of trucks, sometimes with a solid line of speeding flatlanders congealing behind one of the elephants pulling out to pass, at 66 mph, one or more of the elephants going 65 mph. That congestion might be one indicator of something resembling an economic recovery. The roadhogs' lobby is slow to release its index of truck tonnage, but the January 2011 index is near the January 2008 value.
The real elephants were further north. Here, however, is an economics puzzle. On a purchasing-power adjusted basis, is a ticket to a Britney Spears ticket cheaper than a ticket to the late nineteenth century P. T. Barnum sideshow?
Amy Arlington was one of several performers brought out in the course of the sideshow. The snake act is not always part of Britney Spears's routine.
Nora Hildebrandt would have to look for some other job today, as one does not have to pay the barker money to view a tattooed lady. Just go to the beach.
The culture-studies chin-pullers, of course, have no lack of research questions (with the predictable interpretations) when it comes to female sideshow performers.
No doubt they'd find much to Get Upset About with this prop, from a long ago clown act.
The traveling circus was like that, though. Exotica was exotica, not necessarily to be affirmed or celebrated.
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